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Friday, January 06, 2006

Lesson Plan Problems...

This is the third or fourth time I’ve subbed this 5th/6th combo class. On the previous assignments, the teacher left me a well organized plan, the materials I needed all laid out easily referenced and a well disciplined bunch of kids to deal with.

Today wasn’t so well organized. The only constant today was the kids. They were still the same great bunch of kids. But lesson plan wise…

Plan Problem #1: Plan called for a math test for both the 5th and 6th graders.There were NO test papers to be found! I checked the last lesson both grades seemed to be and located a test page that MIGHT be the ones she wants. I listed the book and page numbers for both classes to use on the agenda for today.

Result: Both grades told me that they already did the test pages for practice yesterday. I had them do additional math review problems instead.

Plan Problem #2: Library checkout today!

Result: I herded the class over to the library only to find out they weren’t scheduled until next Friday. Back to the class and silent reading ensued.

Plan Problem #3: NOT on the plan. Spelling test!

The spelling test WASN”T on the plan but all the kids insisted they were supposed to have one for today. This day was bizarre enough anyway, so I thought “Why not?” One of the kids gave me his list of words they were supposed to be tested on and we did a spelling test.

Something big must have distracted Ms. M today. Very unusual.

(At least I didn’t have any English grammar lessons to deal with! Whew!!)

9 comments:

Once I had the flu that KNOCKED me out for about 9 days. I don't even remember 4 of those days, (except for the ER visit for breathing treatments) much less taking care of sub plans. My sainted colleague did my plans for me. Maybe the teacher was really sick or something horrible happened and he or she wasn't thinking straight.

Ahhhhh! The fear of leaving shoddy lesson plans (or a messy room) for a sub is enough to keep me from ever missing school. On the few occasions when I've known I needed to miss school, I've been meticulous to the point of driving myself crazy when leaving materials for the sub. The frustrating thing is that very few of our subs actually follow the plans that we leave.

I have heard that I leave great sub plans. Almost to the point of YOU SAY........THEY DO.....YOU SAY.....with time estimates and everything. I usually plan easy days too. Problem was last time I hand picked a sub and forgot to check that I had already contacted them. So when I showed up last Friday to make sure everything was a go there was a different person in my room. Now 2 people showed up. OOPS!